Review of the pyrolysis platform for coproducing bio-oil and biochar

Journal Article · Tue Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, 3(5):547-562

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/bbb.169· OSTI ID:972957

Laird, David A; Brown, Robert C; Amonette, James E; Lehmann, Johannes C

Pyrolysis is a relatively simple, inexpensive, and robust thermochemical technology for transforming biomass into bio-oil, biochar, and syngas. The robust nature of the pyrolysis technology, which allows considerable flexibility in both the type and quality of the biomass feedstock, combined with a distributed network of small pyrolysis plants, would be compatible with existing agriculture and forestry infrastructure. Bio-oil can be used as a fuel in existing industrial boilers. Biochar can be used with existing infrastructure as a replacement for pulverized coal; however, use of biochar as a soil amendment results in significant environmental and agronomic benefits. Soil application of biochar is a means of sequestering large amounts of C and may have other greenhouse gas benefits. Preliminary reports of the impact of soil biochar applications on crop yields indicate that biochar quality is very important. Biochar is an effective adsorbent for both nutrients and organic contaminants, hence the presence of biochar in soils has been shown to improve water quality in column leaching and field lysimeter studies and it is anticipated to do the same for agricultural watersheds. The pyrolysis platform for producing bio-oil and biochar from biomass appears to be a practical, effective, and environmentally sustainable means of producing large quantities of renewable bioenergy while simultaneously reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. At the present time, the pyrolysis platform is economically marginal because markets for bio-oil and biochar are highly competitive. However, if the USA adopts a program for controlling greenhouse gases, the pyrolysis platform would be highly competitive.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US), Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 972957
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-68799; 25706; KP1702020
• Journal Information: Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, 3(5):547-562, Journal Name: Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, 3(5):547-562 Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
09 BIOMASS FUELS
ADSORBENTS
AGRICULTURE
BIOMASS
BOILERS
COAL
CROPS
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
FLEXIBILITY
FORESTRY
GREENHOUSE GASES
LEACHING
LYSIMETERS
NUTRIENTS
PYROLYSIS
SOILS
Terra Preta
WATER QUALITY
WATERSHEDS
agriculture
bio-oil
biochar
biomass
carbon sequestration
pyrolysis
soil quality